Your vacuum cleaner is probably the most important cleaning item that you have in your entire home. When you consider it, your vacuum looks after thousands of pounds worth of carpeting, upholstery, curtains and other soft furnishings. Follow these simple steps to increase your vacuums life and your enjoyment using it.

Always Keep Your Vacuum Well Maintained – It takes very little effort to keep your vacuum cleaner happy & healthy and a little bit of maintenance goes a long way.  Don’t overfill bags and keep filters clean at all times with regular washing and always replace annually. Ensure that the brush roll is free from hair, threads, carpet fibre and all other foreign objects. Check hoses when extended for splits and tears.

Safety First – Before maintaining your vacuum cleaner remove the plug from the power supply. If working on a cordless vacuum cleaner with an easy to remove battery then remove the battery from the main body.

Protect the power cord to increase its life – Eventually all corded vacuum cleaners, like irons and lawnmowers, will need their power cables replacing. Because they are constantly being flexed over and over again. You will never replace the cable on your TV simply because the cable never moves. So, to prolong the life of your vacuum cleaner cable.

  • Always wind the cable on your vacuum in a loose circle.
  • Always remove the plug from the socket by pulling the plug.
  • Always fully remove the cable from its winder hooks and let it lie in loose circles on the floor.
  • Never pull the cable itself, either from the wall socket or where the cable enters the vacuum.
  • Never wind the cable in a figure of eight.
  • Never use a vacuum with cuts in the outer insulation of the cable or with the internal cables showing.

Using an Extension Lead – Extension leads are rated for a specific number of AMPS (power) so can be limited to the appliances that they are suitable for. Using an extension lead whose rating is too low for the vacuum cleaner could cause it to overheat and possibly even cause a fire.

Keep a Safe Distance from Rotating Parts – The brush roll is right at the heart of the action so is very prone to collecting loose hair and threads which causes damage over time. But as they are specifically designed to rotate at high speed you must –

  • Always unplug the machine before examining the brush roll.
  • Always keep loose objects such as long hair and clothing away from a rotating brush roll.
  • Always make sure that pets are not in the same room whilst examining the brush bar.
  • Always make sure that the brush roll is inserted the correct way round and sits evenly in its holder. And, never, ever put your fingers near or on a rotating brush bar. You risk serious injury.

Never Use a Dry Vacuum Cleaner to Pick Up Fluids – Vacuuming fluids, even a small volume, causes serious harm to vacuum cleaners not designed to handle liquids. Vacuum cleaners with a washing facility are specifically designed to handle fluids and to keep the moisture away from filters and the motor. If fluids are allowed to enter a ‘dry’ vacuum cleaner it can cause internal parts to rust, severe damage to the filters and cause irreparable damage to the motor.

Ensure that You Only Vacuum Items that Your Machine was Designed to Pick Up – Most vacuum cleaners are designed to vacuum normal household dust & dirt. Very few vacuums can handle debris caused by building works with brick dust, plaster dust and general rubble destroying most vacuums. Cyclone vacuums are particularly sensitive to fine dust. Talcum powder and plaster dust are particularly damaging and can easily destroy the vacuum and void the warranty.

Also, be careful not vacuum heavy, long or sharp objects, like nuts, bolts, lego, pens, toothpicks, gravel etc. They can all cause severe damage to your vacuum in an instant.

The views and opinions in this article are those of PHC Vacuum Service and are the result of experienced gained over 30 years of repairing and servicing vacuum cleaners and are independent of any other supplier or manufacturer.